Job

I have been thinking of getting a job for quite a while now. Last year when Leah was in first grade I was contemplating it. One of my tennis friends said, "you should give it a year." So, I gave it a year but still felt like I needed something new to do. It really is a transition going from having small children that require a lot of attention to having "big girls" that are independent in many ways. Truth be told that I was kind of bored with my life. Not at all times of course, but generally speaking the sameness of every day was getting monotonous. I enjoy tennis but even that was feeling old.

I had always liked working before I had children and was a very good sales person. The question was what type of work would be best for me. I didn't want to go for a full-time career type job, at least not yet anyways. I also was hesitant to work retail because of the hours, which might be difficult when Mark is out-of-town. I decided that it was probably best for me to just get my feet wet with any job and then see how it goes. I applied to work at Borders about a month or so ago but was told that they were not looking for anyone at the time.

Last Friday I went to lunch with a friend from Bible study and then we went shopping afterwards. We ended up at Ann Taylor Loft, which is one of my favorite stores. I love picking out clothes for people and helping them shop. My joy must have been evident because several people said that I should consider a job there. My heart kind-of leaped at the idea, so I got an application.

Part of the application process is answering a questionnaire on-line. They had you put basic info about yourself and then asked personality questions that you had to say if you strongly agreed, agreed, were neutral, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. They also said that you only had 20 seconds to answer and you couldn't go back once you hit enter. The very first question I hit strongly disagree instead of strongly agree and felt sick to my stomach. Would my blown answer ruin my chances? Argh!!! I don't remember what the question was but Mark and I joked that it was probably something like, "I consider myself to be an honest person" or "I am a friendly person."

After stewing for four whole days I received the call to come in for an interview. I felt fairly confidant because I am usually pretty good at speaking extemporarily, but I haven't interviewed for a very long time. After talking and answering questions for about ten minutes I was offered the job. I was doing the happy dance inside my head.

I will probably work for about 2-3 days a week. My biggest question is whether I will make any money at all because the employee discounts are really good and I do need work clothes, right? We will see how good my self-control is. I start training tomorrow at 2:00pm. Pray for me.